


(Little) Partners in Crime

by elfenphoenix



Series: My Home is with You [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Childhood Friends AU, Klance Week 2017: Partners In Crime, M/M, Part 2, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 07:39:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10986435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfenphoenix/pseuds/elfenphoenix
Summary: Five-year-old Lance and Keith show the bullies from the orphanage that they might not win separately, but they're pretty unstoppable as a team.





	(Little) Partners in Crime

Five-year-old Lance peeked around the building corner, an eyebrow raised. “That’s them?” he asked Keith, crouching in the dirt next to him.

Keith nodded. “All three of them. The big one’s the one that hit me in the head, though. He threw a rock at me.”

Lance narrowed his eyes at the three boys, hatred filling his head. What kind of jerk hit somebody with a rock for no good reason?! Keith was lucky he just had the gash!

He turned away from the corner, sitting down in the dirt next to Keith and frowning. “That kid is like ten years old! No way we can beat him head-on. Not with the other two.”

“So are we giving up?”

“No way!” Lance shot back, putting his hands on his hips. “I said I’d help you get back at them, and I am! We just need to think. Ummmm… I know! Wait here!”

He ran off, back to his house. He ran inside and grabbed the slingshot his sister had helped him make, and then hurried back to Keith.

Keith’s eyes widened when he saw it. “Where did you get that?!”

“I made it,” he answered, like it was obvious. “So I have an idea,” he began, pointing out at the bullies. “Just listen…”

~~~

Keith clutched a big, gnarly stick with a thick branch out of it in his hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white as he stepped around the corner to face the bullies.

“Hey, are you still gonna keep me away?” he shouted, getting their attention.

The big ten-year-old stood up, looming high over him and glowering down at him. “Scared little alien. Run away again?”

The kid had pretty bad English, but his friends laughed around him nonetheless. Keith tightened his grip on the stick, grimacing up at them with determination. “I’m not scared of you!”

This seemed to make the ten-year-old angry, and he lurched toward Keith, fists out.

This was the moment to strike. Keith ducked, using the branch to hook the older boy’s leg and pull it out from under him, taking down one of the other boys in the process.

Lance, hidden in a tree that peeked over the building, didn’t wait for a signal. He let loose a pebble, hearing the satisfying _thwap_ as it hit the ten-year-old dead center of his right buttcheek.

He stifled a giggle as the boy yelled out in pain and spun around, trying to identify the source of the pebble, but was distracted by Keith smacking him in the head with his stick. Meanwhile, Lance reloaded his slingshot and beaned one of the other bullies in the shoulder, keeping them from hitting Keith.

Pretty soon, some of the other kids were gathering around, cheering on the fight. The three boys looked ridiculous, losing to what appeared to be a single five-year-old with a big stick, but that’s what was happening, and the other kids were eating it up.

Lance and Keith made a ridiculously good team. If the three bullies focused too much on Keith and his stick, Lance would hit them with a pebble, but if they spent too much time trying to figure out where the fire was coming from, then Keith would beat the crap out of them with the stick. It was really efficient.

Unfortunately, it had to end sometime.

Adults rushed out of the houses, pulling Keith away from the ten-year-old, who was covered in bruises and had a nice gash across his left cheek. Lance heard a shout and looked down to see his mother glaring up at him, her hands on her hips. “Lance Álvarez, you get down from there right now!”

The adults, Lance’s mother included, made Keith and Lance apologize to the three bullies, but it didn’t really dull the sense of accomplishment the two of them felt. The bullies looked super beat up, while Keith and Lance were hardly even scratched.

The people at the orphanage said that it was time for Keith to come back, a suggestion that terrified Lance, but then his mother stepped between them, insisting that she would take care of Keith until a new home was found for him. And yes, she would punish him for acting out. As well as her son for encouraging him.

As soon as all of the adults dispersed, Lance’s mother crouched down and grabbed each of them by an ear, pinching down hard, and glaring at them. “You two should know better than to start fights!”

“But mom, they started it!” Lance complained, wincing against the pain. “They hit Keith with a rock! That’s why he was hurt!”

Understanding flickered through her gaze, but she didn’t loosen her grip. “Just because someone does something bad, that doesn’t mean you need to do the same thing back. You have to be the good guy. Do you understand, _mijo_?”

Lance nodded, and she let go of both of their ears, brushing the dust off of her pants and straightening up. “Alright, now let’s go home.”

She grabbed both of them by a hand and began pulling them back towards the Álvarez house, even as Lance’s sister was collapsing into hysterical laughter behind them.

“I’m sorry, they just… did you see their faces, _Mamá_?! They got their butts kicked by a pair of boys like half their age! They didn’t even know what to do!”

She continued laughing behind them, and Lance looked over at Keith, around his mother’s strides. Keith grinned back at him, and they both started laughing.

Yeah, they’d apologized to the three bullies. But they definitely didn’t feel very sorry about it.


End file.
